Cristiane 'Cyborg' Justino (Dave Mandel/Sherdog)

Combat Press Women’s MMA Rankings: April 2018

With the growing popularity of women’s MMA, it is important to recognize these women with a rankings system similar to the men. Between the UFC’s inclusion of a bantamweight division, its addition of a strawweight division, its recent announcement of a flyweight division and the all-female promotion of Invicta FC, more and more women are being exposed to casual and hardcore fans alike. Every month, Combat Press compiles the staff’s individual rankings from featherweight to atomweight to create the Combat Press Women’s MMA Rankings.

Featherweight Division (61.9-66.3 kilograms)
  1. Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino (1)
  2. Julia Budd (2)
  3. Germaine de Randamie (3)
  4. Megan Anderson (4)
  5. Charmaine Tweet (5)
  6. Talita Nogueira (6)
  7. Arlene Blencowe (7)
  8. Felicia Spencer (8)
  9. Ediane Gomes (9)
  10. Amber Leibrock (-)

Dropped from the rankings: Gabrielle Holloway (10)

In the month of March, the greatest female fighter in history continued to cement herself as the GOAT. Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino defended her UFC featherweight championship against former Invicta bantamweight titleholder Yana Kunitskaya. Cyborg scored another knockout win to add to her already massive highlight reel of knockouts.


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Bantamweight Division (57.3-61.8 kilograms)
  1. Amanda Nunes (1)
  2. Holly Holm (2)
  3. Ronda Rousey (3)
  4. Raquel Pennington (4)
  5. Julianna Pena (5)
  6. Ketlen Vieira (9)
  7. Cat Zingano (6)
  8. Tonya Evinger (7)
  9. Sarah Kaufman (8)
  10. Marion Reneau (-)

Dropped from the rankings: Yana Kunitskaya (10)

One of the UFC’s hottest up-and-comers continued to make her case for a title shot in March. Ketlen Vieira scored another win to stay undefeated. Vieira was able to defeat Cat Zingano. The victory might be enough to make Vieira, who jumps into the No. 6 spot in the rankings, the next contender to the bantamweight strap once Amanda Nunes and Raquel Pennington settle their score in May.

Flyweight Division (52.8-57.2 kilograms)
  1. Jennifer Maia (1)
  2. Valentina Shevchenko (2)
  3. Aga Niedźwiedź (3)
  4. Vanessa Porto (4)
  5. Nicco Montano (5)
  6. Roxanne Modafferi (6)
  7. Rin Nakai (7)
  8. Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (8)
  9. Sijara Eubanks (-)
  10. Alexis Davis (10)

Dropped from the rankings: Lauren Murphy (9)

The flyweight division was quiet in the month of March, and it looks to be the same way in April. Don’t expect many changes in the divisional rankings.

Strawweight Division (50.1-52.7 kilograms)
  1. Rose Namajunas (1)
  2. Joanna Jędrzejczyk (2)
  3. Jessica Andrade (3)
  4. Claudia Gadelha (4)
  5. Karolina Kowalkiewicz (5)
  6. Tecia Torres (6)
  7. Carla Esparza (7)
  8. Michelle Waterson (8)
  9. Felice Herrig (10)
  10. Alexa Grasso (-)

Dropped from the rankings: Cynthia Calvillo (9)

The strawweights had a quiet March, but things are set to pick up in April. A huge rematch for the UFC strawweight championship co-headlines UFC 223. The champ, Rose Namajunas, looks to rebuke the attempt of Joanna Jędrzejczyk to recapture the title after falling to Namajunas at the end of 2017. On the same card, Felice Herrig seeks to continue her career resurgence against former title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Michelle Waterson will look to move up the rankings when she takes on Cortney Casey.

Atomweight Division (less than 50 kilograms)
  1. Ayaka Hamasaki (1)
  2. Seo Hee Ham (2)
  3. Jinh Yu Frey (3)
  4. Herica Tiburcio (4)
  5. Mina Kurobe (5)
  6. Julia Jones (6)
  7. Naho Sugiyama (7)
  8. Ashley Cummins (8)
  9. Kanna Asakura (10)
  10. Amber Brown (9)

Mina Kurobe continued her ascent up the rankings with a win over Satomi Takano. Otherwise, the division had a quiet month in March.


Editor’s Note: Fighters are eligible to be ranked if they have competed in the last 18 months. Any fighter that chooses to switch weight classes will be ranked in their previous weight class until they have competed twice in their new division.


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